How to not take terrible vacation pictures

We’ve all been there. You go into someone’s office/house/facebook feed (don’t even get me started on Instagram) and there they are: terrible pictures of someone’s vacation stuck in a frame or other position of prominence.

It’s really not terribly difficult to take pictures that will look decent, provided you keep a few handy “rules” of composition in mind.

First, consider your subject matter and take a moment to decide what you’re actually taking a picture of. Is it yonder mountain or the river below it? Maybe the sunset above? Once you’ve done this, think if there is a better spot to stand in to get the best image. Try to avoid extraneous tree branches creeping into the corner of the frame and take ten steps out of the parking lot so you don’t take a picture of a trash can. As Ansel Adams himself said, “A good photograph is knowing were to stand.”

Once you think you’re in your spot, consider the following:

The rule of thirds-

Imagine looking through your camera’s viewfinder (or your phone screen) and picture that someone has drawn a big tic-tac-toe board on it, and that you line up important elements of the image with either the lines and/or the intersections before taking the pic. That’s the rule of thirds. Below note how Ansel Adams uses the rule of thirds in his iconic photo, Tetons and the Snake River:

The bends in the river occur on the grid lines and near the intersections, and the most prominent peaks of the mountains do the same. One thing to remember with the rule of thirds is that it generally frowns upon centered compositions (putting what you’re taking a pic of smack dab in the middle of the frame). You shouldn’t be doing that anyway. Boring.

Mind the three segments-

Try to think of your image of consisting of three segments: the foreground, middleground, and background. Getting something interesting in each segment will create a more balanced image with more to look at. Note Ansel’s effective use of this in Thunderstorm, Yosemite Valley

He has the trees and low clouds in the foreground, El Capitan and the waterfall in the middle, with the spooky clouds in the back. Again, rule of thirds is evident here.

Mind the foreground-

Be it a log on the beach, a critter, a boulder, or something else, putting something interesting up close will add depth to the image. Note the tiny little horse in the foreground of Adams’ Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine

It’s a tiny element in the image but it gives a real sense of massiveness to the mountains behind as well as adds life to an image that’s otherwise rock, ice, and leafless trees. Also note the use of the rule of thirds with the placement of the horse and mountaintops, and there being distinct segments to the image: the lit trees and horses in the foreground, the darkened ridge in the middle, and the lit mountains behind.

Behold the Golden Hour-

Photography is the capture of light, and at no time is the light better than the Golden Hour, typically the period just after sunrise and right before sunset. That’s when the sun is low in the sky, blasting everything horizontally with lovely colored light. Midday is harsh light and dark shadows. Rule of thirds at the golden hour makes a dirt road pretty

One minor note on horizon-

Take a few seconds to make sure you’ve got the horizon level (or true, if you’re taking a pic of hillside and it looks sloped to the naked eye). Also try to place it along one of your 1/3 lines. Place it on the bottom third if you want to emphasize the sky, the top third will put emphasis on the ground.

Disclaimer: “Rules” of photographic composition are generally “guidelines” and if you make a great image that follows none of the above (like that friggin million dollar potato pic), more power to you. This was intended to be a primer for the uninformed iphoneographer or pointer-and-shooter.

TL;DR- slow down, think, line everything up right in the viewfinder when the light is pretty and impress anyone that wanders into your cubicle